‘Open Idaho’ wins 1st Amendment Award

BOISE â€“ The “Open Idaho” project is the winner of the 1st Amendment Award from the Idaho Press Club, announced on Saturday at the clubâ€™s annual awards banquet in Boise.

It was the latest honor for the project, which includes a DVD and website educating Idahoans about the state’s open meetings and public records laws, providing links and tips, presenting fun sketches to illustrate what the laws do and don’t allow, and providing lesson plans for Idaho high school teachers. The full title of the project is, “Open Idaho, A Userâ€™s Guide to Idahoâ€™s Open Meeting and Records Laws.”

Earlier, the project was nominated for a regional Emmy Award, and also received a “Gold” award in the legal category at Worldfest, the Houston International Film and Video Festival.

The Idaho Press Clubâ€™s 1st Amendment Award honored IDOG, Idaho Public Television, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, and “Fool Squad” actors Joe Golden and Tom Willmorth for their work on the project, which included a live call-in “Dialogue” show on Idaho Public Television in which host Joan Cartan-Hansen, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and IDOG President Betsy Russell took calls from the public about Idahoâ€™s open meetings and public records laws.

The “Open Idaho” project was funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

The entire content of the “Open Idaho” project is available online for free, at www.openidaho.org.

Not an IDOG member yet?

Connect with IDOG

Mission

IDOG's mission is to foster open government, supervised by an informed
and engaged citizenry. We believe that we all benefit when the public,
the media and government officials are fully aware of the public's
rights to access government information and observe the conduct of the
public's business.